Revalation About a Crewmember
by lochrann
Summary: How Robin feels about Brook. Nakama-fic, mentioning of all the crew.


**Revelation about a crewmember**

She almost berated herself for taking a couple of minutes to remember what the greatest talent of her newest nakama actually was. With the others she simply knew. None of their talents really fit the skeleton though. Robin loved all her nakama, naturally including the ever cheerful undead pantie-fetishist but - possibly also because he hadn't been around yet at the time of her spectacular rescue - she wasn't quite sure why she appreciated Brook as much as she did the others.

He was nothing like the captain, for example. True, he was usually in good spirits, which considering his past endurance was probably quite the feat, but her bony nakama lacked Luffy's uncanny ability to trust the people he believed to be worthy of it with every fibre in his body and from the very beginning. After all, they had had to chase after the skeleton and practically force Brook to accept the crew's help to free his shadow.

Then, though being quite a skilled fencer, Brook would not in all his years be able to mach Zoro's swordsmanship and neither could he share as much determination for fulfilment of his dream. Since making his promise everything Zoro had done could be put down to his becoming the greatest, on the other hand it had taken Brook a couple of years and a stupidly grinning rubber boy to take back up his ambitions of finding his wale-friend and telling him all about his journey across the grand line and deceased crew.

And then there were his lame skull jokes, which to Robin were proof that he had neither the wit nor intellect the navigator and herself possessed, and certainly not Nami's sharp tongue. Nor could he ever be as charming as Sanji instead being quite uncouth in directly demanding to know the colour of any females underwear.

And even if he sometimes recognised a situation to be to dangerous for his skill he hadn't quite the consideration and reason the crew's sharpshooter could muster. It seemed like either arbitrarily doing the sensible thing or simply cowardice taking over, unlike Usoppe who usually acted on logical terms. The crew and even Usoppe himself usually put his ducking out of battles and shooting from the safety of the background, down to being a coward but Robin had the decency to take into consideration that Usoppe (and possibly Nami, though she portrayed inhuman strength when dealing with her own nakama) was the only one on the crew you could call mere human. And taking that into account, the amount of times he did step up for his friends were truly admirable. No, Brook had none of Usoppe's sense; given the opportunity he could be just as reckless as most of the male crew, or as stupid.

Thinking along those lines, Robin also came to the conclusion that, had it not been for the Strawhats and their immensely skilled doctor this cracked skull would have probably been dead for the second time, soon. Being only a frail bundle of bones made him vulnerable already but then loosing his shadow, becoming photo-allergic and on top of all that being a devil-fruit user and therefore prone to drowning, he wouldn't have had a hope in hell of ever seeing Laboon again.

She thought that maybe it was his age that fascinated her and in a way his ability of growing much older than any of them if he didn't get into too much physical danger. All the history he had witnessed. He had sailed the grand line even before Gol D. Roger had been a rookie. And the things he would be able to tell generations to come, like the history she so desperately sought to decipher but so much easier to access.

And then he lacked the compassion that their second oldest crew mate had. The shipwright was highly emotional to a nearly annoying degree. But Franky loved the crew and the ship he had created, so how could he not shed a tear whenever they were feeling happy, sad, nostalgic, pensive, cheerful...the list went on. The only times she'd see Brook convey that much emotion was when he was playing...oh...of course. Now she remembered why he was as valuable a crew member as any other and especially to her. His music. Never had she felt so many different emotions wash over her in one instant as when she had been listening to Brook playing Bink's sake at their Thriller-Bark-victory-feast. Not even when she had been at Enies Lobby pleading for her own life. Possibly because then she had been shutting away half of her feelings to not simply shatter under their sheer abundance and had now been free to let the feelings sink in and work her emotions.

But pondering the incident and many other similar ones that had occurred since the skeleton had joined their crew she was perfectly aware that nothing else than his music could carry that vast sentience with it. In one instant she would simultaneously recognise the anguish of half a century of solitude but also the gratitude of having found a new nakama into which he blended in so well.

Robin wasn't sure whether he himself was actually aware of this effect or if it was just in the flow of his music but it didn't really matter because selfreccognition wasn't what a talent was all about. And for that matter she doubted any of her other crew mates had ever stopped to consider their own talents, except for herself maybe.

AN: So, in a rare bout of inspiration (which also derives from the first chapter of Amethyst Turtle's drabble collection but in general quite the amount of good old nakama drabbles out there at the moment) I decided to give it a try. I've only ever written one more fanfic that was so much shite that I'd rather not count it and claim this to be my first. I had intended it to be full of beautiful music analogies but it just ended up as a summary of well-established character traits in pretty words...oh well, you can't have everything. So I put this out there very humbly and hope for you to tell me what you like or dislike. Therefore I', looking forward to reviews (Oh and be a little considerate, it's 05:20 in the frickin' morning but unfortunately inspiration knows no healthy sleeping times)

Fixed the mistakes.


End file.
